


Mask

by CastaccioNut



Series: Mask [1]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-23
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-09-24 22:36:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20366239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CastaccioNut/pseuds/CastaccioNut
Summary: A lone man sits on an island. A cursed man. What is he doing there? Who is he? Not even he knows those answers. All he knows is that the life that he left behind keeps haunting him, taunting him, from behind his own mask.





	Mask

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a little pet idea that I had. I first thought "what if Poultryman is real?" and it all spiraled down from there. Now I haven't seen much on AO3 yet, so I have a feeling that someone else out there might've done something like this (or better) already, and I'd love to see what's been done with this! Anyway, without further adieu...

I'm sitting in the perfect spectacle, I'm sure. The stroke of a calm ocean breeze, the noise of some splashing fish, the sun hanging just above, splitting the sky into two colors - a picturesque scene. Perfect for a picnic, or a party, a hangout with friends. Meanwhile, I feel nothing but heat and moisture, hear only a muffled ripple, and all that I can see of the sky are two small circles of blue and orange. But the worst part is that it isn't even my fault. Whoever I am, sitting on a patch of sand by the ocean, it's not my choice. I never chose to shield the spectacle that sat right in front of me.

I never chose to wear this mask.

If I had chosen to wear it, then, _heh_, what a stupid fool I would've been to land myself in such a situation, since this thing that's stuck on my head can't be so easily unstuck. Believe me, I've tried numerous times with numerous methods of yanking, scratching, hitting, burning, soaking, over and over again and none of them have worked. And I'm not trying to remove it because it's annoying, I'm not a baby. I _also _want to remove this sense of constant dread, of imprisonment that's just casually sitting on my head and weighing down my shoulders and constantly getting in the way of everything I do, literally suffocating my every action. Oh, excuse the pun, since the stupid mask is getting quite small after months and months and _months_ of wearing it.

On top of that, this costume is so good at disguising things that I can't remember who I was from before it's faux feathers graced my cheeks and itched me to madness. I don't have a solid grasp of the world, a place to stay, or even a real name. Except for...no, that's not a real name. Not one I'd want to have. Worst of all, however, is the fact that whatever is hiding the man (or woman, because drive me _completely_ mad, why don't you?) on the inside is the most ridiculous one of all.

The _chicken_.

I don't need to peer through the eyeholes to know that that's what hides whatever might be inside. I can hear the proof everywhere I go. Those _chickens_. Like most other sounds, it's slightly muffled, but they're so numerous that their stupid cries drill into my skull. Their dead, black eyes strangle my soul and continually drive me mad to the point of no return. Of course, I'm not willing to go that far to take off a damned mask. Yet. Still, sitting on the shore, my view thoroughly ruined, I would think about it sometimes. I shook my head. I don't want any of that mess in my head again.

I laid down on the coarse, gritty shore, fiddling with some grains of sand with my fingertips. The orange color from the sky that I could see was almost fully gone, meaning nighttime was on its way along with its beasts that rear their ugly heads. Of course, I would sometimes hear a few people casually talking to somebody while mowing down such creatures, but I'm not like them in more ways than one (other than them presumably not having a mask and being able to see their own casually happy faces) - in terms of 'defense,' I keep a couple of battered stone swords with me for my unmasking needs and my unmasking needs only. I hide from the monsters in a tree every night. I wait for them until my skin prickles with the cold night air to finish my day, since my only focus is this mask and nothing else. And right now, my plans aren't any different.

My fingers crawled up my torso and grabbed the dangling red chicken wattle. _'Dangling red chicken wattle?' That makes zero sense, _I thought. _Why am I cursed to have to think up something like that?_ I instinctively grabbed the smooth edge of the mask as the air around me becomes colder and I sigh. _Once more, I suppose, _I thought. _For old times sake. _I heaved myself up and grabbed the edges with both hands, resting my hands on the sides where I usually do. There are even creases where I rest my fingers, I've tried it that many times.

I know how it'll go, but that won't stop me from enacting this ritual. I pushed upwards. It shuffles a bit, but otherwise, it doesn't budge.

The cold on my skin intensified.

I angled my hands again, this time poking my thumbs on the inside of the corners of the mask and lifted it slightly, just enough to sense the blue-ish atmosphere.

The wind grew still.

My hope drained away as it does every night. What little faith I have of seeing a somebody under this trap is seeping from my soul, replacing it with a single thought.

_Maybe there is nothing under the 'mask.' Maybe this is you._

No. No, that can't be the case. Every time I've enacted the ritual, I've felt something under there. With my bruised, cut, scorched, poisoned fingers, I felt something in here that wished to escape.

_You don't know that._

Yes, yes I do know it. I know that there's someone there through the tangible hope that comes with the thought of freedom. But also through the despair to leave. To abandon this fake face and find a new self underneath. The despair took me over. My weakened fingers stumbled over themselves to find a grip. A release from the mask.

_Which might not exist._

That can't be. There is something there. I started pulling harder, harder, and yet harder and harder. Despairingly so. Tugging and pulling over and over until I finally tugged out a massive cry.

**"I ' M N O T P O U L T R Y M A N !"**

The burden vanished. The despair ebbed away. The mask slipped effortlessly off of my head. And with it, a tear out of my eye. Actually. I'm man enough to admit that I'm crying right now. Wait...

"This is real, right?" Sure enough, I heard a sound resonate. Formed into words. A voice. Smoother than I could've ever imagined. Shakey, but the loudest and clearest I've heard it in...ever. And the silence is also _real_ silence. Not as if somebody is filtering something so that I didn't hear, but as if the world around me is choosing to take a break. Releasing a breath that it held so that it could be glad for something. "To be glad for me, maybe." I still love this voice. But there's more to this enlightened state. I looked upwards. And, oh my god...

It's beautiful. 

A massive expanse of deep indigo. No other color to intrude the view, save for the hive of white dots that further instill me with absolute joy also known as stars. I've never quite seen the face of the night in its wholest glory. The moon is behind me, but I don't need it. These stars will provide enough light and wonder to sustain me for the rest of my life. I shifted my gaze down slightly, then a little more, and more until - wait, what's that? In the nearly black water, there was a haze of something. I walked to the shore like I always could and took in the image in all its glory.

A person. Slightly greyed out since the moon is behind me, but essentially, a person.

I noticed a dark shirt and grey pants but what captured me the most was the face. I bent down, my mouth agape. I can't believe what I'm seeing. In the water is a boy's face with pale skin, decorated with blue eyes with white irises, thin lips surrounding a slightly open mouth, and the most luscious hair in the world. A light brown head of hair which is almost as bright as his skin. It goes down to the bottom of his chin with a beautiful, hazy mess of hair - curls - at about his chin to reward my eyes. I touched my slightly warm cheek, and the shocked boy did the same. I closed my mouth to smile, and he followed suit. I know how the world works. And now I know that this is who I am. That this magical boy...is me. My existence is now complete.

Finally, I can take a breath, rest, enjoy the night before the beasts came to spoil it. I laid down my head onto the beach, making as much use of my new eyes as possible by counting the stars that I for so long wanted to see and now could finally see, _finally!_ I could do everything in a new way, feel everything in a new way. Aside from seeing the white-hot bundles of joy that I could finally see, now I can also hear the fish that splashed in the ocean in front of me in a way that I never could. Now I can smell the salty ocean and the trees' evergreen scent when all I could smell was my own sweat. Now I can feel...my heart...stop.

Now I can feel a scaly foot on my head, tangling itself in my newfound perfect hair. Now I can see the clearest silhouette that I ever could see. One that I thought that I would never see again. I can smell the dirt in its feathers. I can see its 'dangling red wattle.' I can feel the gaze of its eyes, it's cold, dead, black, beady eyes that are staring into my newfound soul. One that silenced my cherished voice. One that froze me there.

One that is holding me prisoner. Again.

The beasts of the night started crowding around me. I can feel their dragging feet, hear their diverse rattles, groans, screeches, cries, hisses, but the thing that held me there made no sound. It only gave me a knowing look. It gave me new chains, a new prison, with only one thought coursing through my very being as it did so. One that it fed me through its dead eyes.

**Y O U A R E S T I L L M I N E .**

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I made you sway with this little idea, and I hope I can actually update this by the end of time!  
-Nut


End file.
